


The Exchange

by TanyaReed



Series: Life's Full of Surprises [2]
Category: due South
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-07
Updated: 2012-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-29 03:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/315247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanyaReed/pseuds/TanyaReed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just Meg and Ray K sweetness...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Exchange

Meg woke up slowly, feeling deliciously content and comfortable. This was mostly because of the man snuggled up behind her with his arm around her waist and his face buried in her shoulder. Ray loved to cuddle while he slept, and Meg enjoyed the feeling of lazy peace that surrounded her when she woke in his arms.

Sighing in contentment, she ran her hand over his forearm. She loved the texture of his skin and the outline of wiry muscle that shifted beneath. At her touch, he mumbled against her and his embrace tightened.

Reluctantly, Meg opened her eyes to check the clock. She blinked as the bright sunshine leaking in from a gap in her curtains attacked her eyes and smiled because the sun always seemed to shine just a little brighter lately.

The smile dropped from her face when she squinted at the numbers on the clock. 7:53. She stared at it dumbly for several seconds as the numbers made their way through her still sleep hazy mind. Didn't she normally get up at seven? Was it Saturday? No, she thought, pushing the last of the sleep from her mind. It was Wednesday.

She reached out and touched her alarm clock and discovered, to her horror, that she had forgotten to set the alarm. The little black button taunted her from its off position, and the numbers gleefully turned from 7:53 to 7:54.

“Damn!” she gasped, shaking Ray's arm. He mumbled in his sleep but didn't move.

Meg lifted Ray's arm and sat up, suddenly feeling cold. She was tempted to forget about work and curl back into his arms. Unfortunately, she was the boss, and that kind of behaviour wouldn't do at all. Besides that, no one knew about her and Ray's involvement. Both of them being late or not showing up at all might give their secret away.

“Ray.” This time she shook his shoulder. “Wake up!”

It was like trying to wake a rock. Deciding to worry about him after, she reached for her watch, which sat next to the clock. She knew she'd never make it to work in a half an hour anyway, but she still jumped to her feet and hurried to her dresser.

There'd be no time for a shower. Meg hoped a quick swipe with a facecloth would be enough to take care of most of the dried sweat and lingering scents of Ray and their strenuous and pleasurable activities of the night before. Meg stopped rummaging for underwear and brought her arm up to her face. Ray's aftershave clung to her skin. She smiled, thinking that she actually wouldn't mind spending the day surrounded by his smell. Of course, in that case, the other scents would linger as well, and Fraser had a nose like a bloodhound.

Giving herself a quick shake, Meg tried to will herself away from the woman who had been loved by Ray and into the one who had a Consulate to run.

On her way to the bathroom, she threw another glance at Ray. He was now sleeping on his back, naked to the waist, his chest rising and falling evenly. Meg thought he looked almost too adorable to wake, and decided to give him a few more minutes. At least that way he wouldn't be competition for the bathroom.

Even though she was in a hurry, she still gave in to the temptation to kiss him softly on her way by.

XXX

It was ten o'clock before she noticed. She was sitting at her desk filling in forms when she realized that her left wrist felt funny. It didn't hurt or anything. It just felt a little wrong.

She frowned and glanced at it. Her mouth opened slightly when she realized where normally her watch would be, there was a man's bracelet instead. Meg lifted her arm, studying the simple piece of jewelry that almost always adorned Ray's wrist. Unable to help herself, she smiled. It was like having a piece of him right there with her, lying against her skin.

She touched it with her other hand, sliding her finger over the cool links. Warmth that had nothing to do with the metal spread through her.

She must have taken it by mistake. Her morning was all a rushed blur, but she seemed to remember reaching out for her watch when she got out of bed. Meg wondered what Ray had thought when he finally woke and found her and his bracelet gone and her watch on the stand instead. Did it irritate him or did the thought of her bringing a piece of him to work delight him as much as it had her?

The sensible thing for her to do would be to take it off and put it in her purse. She was wearing a short sleeve shirt, and it was much too warm in her office to put her blazer back on. Turnbull had turned the heat up high enough to make it feel like the tropics. Anyone could come in and see the bracelet, and most of the people she knew in Chicago would recognize it. Of course, she told herself, if she took it off, she might lose it. Ray would never forgive her for that. It was much safer where it was.

That was the only reason for keeping it on, of course. It had nothing to do with the fact that she loved the way it looked on her wrist or that wearing it made her feel as if he were there with her. That would be sentimental hogwash, and Meg was not sentimental.

She couldn't stop smiling.

She was still smiling a few minutes later when there was a knock on her door. Meg had started filling in her forms again, trying not to notice the heavy movement of the chain against her wrist.

At the knock, she stopped and looked at the door. She bit her lip briefly before taking her arm off of the desk and placing her hand in her lap.

“Come in.”

Constable Fraser entered the room looking starched and ironed. He had several sheets of paper in his hands, and his eyes were studying them instead of looking at her.

“Yes, Constable?”

He glanced up. “I was just going through the guest list for next week's party, and...”

“Is there something wrong?” she asked when he trailed off. Her stomach twinged nervously.

“No, sir. It's just...Nothing. It's nothing.”

“Fraser.”

“You look slightly different today, sir.” Good Lord, the man couldn't, Superman-like, see her wrist through the desk, could he? “Are you wearing your hair differently?”

Maybe if you counted “combed in a hurry” as a style. “No.”

“Perhaps you are wearing a new blouse.”

“No. I wore this one last week.”

“Your earrings?”

“I wear these almost every day.”

“Of course you do, sir.” He looked extremely baffled. “I'm sure there is something.”

“Is there a point to this rambling, Fraser?” she asked curtly, wondering what he had picked up on.

He practically snapped to attention. “I'm sorry, sir. About the list..”

“Yes, go on.”

“I think several of the names are jumbled.”

“Jumbled?”

“Edwin Chevalier...Javier Jones...Veronique Sabino...Winston Esposito...Isn't the Spanish Ambassador Javier Esposito and the Australian politician Winston Thurber, sir?”

“Turnbull made up that list,” Meg said crossly, forgetting Fraser's intuition. “Here, let me see.”

She lifted her hand from her lap, about to thrust it angrily towards Fraser. It was almost in sight when she froze. Awkwardly, she reached out her right hand instead, trying to act as if this were the gesture she had intended.

He eyed her curiously but didn't comment as he placed the paper in her hand.

“Thank you, Fraser. I'll take care of it. Please see that Turnbull is at least addressing the envelopes correctly.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

She waited until he was out of the room before allowing her forearm to rise above the desktop. Her moment of pique had made her careless, and she'd almost given it all away. It wasn't that she was ashamed of Ray, and she knew everyone would have to find out eventually, but she was enjoying their happy little bubble and she was reluctant for real life to intrude on it just yet.

The smile came back to her face, and her recent desire to scold Turnbull faded. He had made a mistake, but so what? He was only human, after all, and it wasn't anything Meg couldn't fix.

She picked up the pen she'd placed on the desk when Fraser entered and diligently started correcting the names. Turnbull had obviously had something else on his mind. Why else would he have typed “Mr. Isabella Johannes”? Not only was Isabella Croatian, with the last name of Katic, she was also a blond, blue-eyed, buxom creature who would never be mistaken for a mister. Normally, this would have annoyed Meg, but today it amused her instead.

The phone rang, her office line not the generic line of the Consulate. Ray's bracelet scraped softly across the desk as she reached out her left hand to answer.

“Hello. Canadian Consulate. Inspector Thatcher speaking.”

“You didn't wake me up.”

The low, soft voice made a delicious shiver go up Meg's spine. “I tried, believe me. It was like trying to wake a rock.”

“I was late for work.”

She sighed. “So was I.”

He chuckled. “But you're the boss. What are they gonna do? Fire you?”

“Did you get in trouble?” she asked curiously.

“Nah. They like me here.”

“They're not the only ones.”

“Yeah?” he asked warmly.

“Yeah.”

“I like you too...even if you're a thief.” His voice was tinged with amusement.

“I beg your pardon?” She kept her tone even and serious.

“I believe you have somethin' of mine.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“You can't fool me, Inspector. I know you have it.”

“Oh,” she said innocently, “do you mean this thing hanging off of my wrist?”

“You're wearing it?” She could hear him smile.

“I put it on by accident this morning and decided I liked the way it looked. You're not mad, are you?”

“Mad? Nah. I've got your watch in my pocket.”

Meg felt her face flush with pleasure as she thought about Ray walking around all day with her watch. His bracelet had been an accident on her part, despite how much she enjoyed having it, but him taking the watch had been deliberate. He had purposefully chosen to carry a piece of her with him.

She was quiet so long, he prodded, “Meg?”

“Just see that you don't break it, Detective.” She couldn't hide the affection in her voice, though she pretended to be stern.

“I'll do my best.”

“I hope so.” Then, dropping the false tone, she asked, “Will I see you today?”

“I'm coming to pick up Fraser at two.”

“Stop in?”

“Of course...Did you want to switch back?”

“Switch back how?” she asked puzzled.

“Do you need your watch?”

“No,” she said hastily. Realizing that she sounded almost distressed, she hurried to add, “I hope that's okay. I think I'd like to wear your bracelet for the rest of the day.”

“It's more than okay. It's greatness.”

“Really?”

“I can't wait to see it on you.”

“It looks as if it belongs there,” she told him, gently running the fingers of her right hand over it.

“Maybe it does. I'll see you in a couple of hours.”

“I'll be waiting.”

“Okay, I'll...Oh, whoops. Gotta go. Welsh is givin' me that evil eye thing of his...One more thing, first.”

“What is it?”

“Does your office door lock?”

The end

**Author's Note:**

> The other day, I was thinking about how Ray always wears the same bracelet and Meg always wears the same watch, and this was the result.


End file.
